Peter Bradford
From The Dark Shadows Wiki
Peter Bradford is the law student who unsuccessfully defended Victoria Winters in 1795 and vowed to come back to her after death.
Peter Bradford was born Jan. 18, 1770 to Caleb and Nora Bradford in Deer Feet, [Maine?] (636). He had an affair with Danielle Rogét (609) in 1795, who killed her lover, Phillippe Cordier to be with him (623). Peter then met Victoria Winters, a young time-traveler accused of witchcraft. He fell in love with her and claimed to be studying law in Collinsport (a claim he later denied (623)) and offered to represent her in court (404).
Before Victoria was hanged (460) he vowed to be with her again.
Peter was accused of the murder of Noah Gifford (who was actually killed by Victoria Winters) and hanged in 1796 (623),(626). But before his execution he gave a note to Danielle (623), telling her he had found a way to be reunited with Victoria. He was hanged on Apr. 3, 1795 (625).
[edit] Jeff Clark
In 1968, Victoria almost ran over a man in a car accident (465). The man was Jeff Clark, who Vicki recognized as the reincarnation of Peter Bradford. Jeff suffered from amnesia and did not recall any of his life, either as Peter Bradford or Jeff Clark. He had been institutionalized by Dr. Eric Lang who told him he was there because he had been convicted of murder. Lang "allowed" Jeff to work for him as a grave robber and laboratory assistant. Jeff balked at his job as the experiment to bring Adam to life neared, prompting Lang to decide to use Jeff's face for the creation (478-479). Fortunately for Jeff, Julia agreed to hypnotize Jeff to make him forget his ghoulish part of the experiment (480-481) and assist Lang in exchange Lang would spare Jeff's life. After Lang's death (486), Jeff was drawn into the experiment again to help Dr. Julia Hoffman to create Eve (552). Angelique, having lost her powers as a witch and having been turned into a vampire under the control of Nicholas Blair, bit Jeff (575) to force him to give her information about the experiment, which she intended to be the life force for Eve. Jeff did not become a vampire, but Angelique and Nicholas' plans kept Jeff from seeing Victoria Winters and she eventually broke off her engagement with Jeff (579).
Jeff eventually reconciled with Vicky (604), but after Eve traveled back to 1796 to visit Peter (623), she returned with a note providing evidence that Jeff Clark and Peter Bradford were really one in the same (625). Jeff did not want to believe Eve, but after noting that the signature on the note from Peter was in his own handwriting and knowing that Victoria always believed that he was really Peter Bradford, Jeff skipped out of his wedding to dig up Peter's grave and found it empty (625). Peter then contacted Professor Stokes performed a ceremony which allowed Jeff to recall his life as Peter Bradford (636). Jeff finally married Victoria secretly (637) but on their honeymoon (at the Collinsport Inn!) began getting strange visitations and told Vicky "they" would not allow him to remain in the 20th century much longer, that he was being drawn back to 1796. The day after Jeff and Vicky were married, Jeff disappeared while Vicky watched (637).
Victoria began to feel Peter/Jeff was still with her, but she became upset when everyone tried to get her to face reality and attempted to jump off Widows' Hill, but was saved by Elizabeth and Prof. Stokes (641). She found his watch he was wearing when he disappeared in her room one day. Finally she begged him to come back to her and he did. Outside her bedroom in Collinwood, Barnabas Collins and Elizabeth Collins Stoddard heard an awful sound and broke the door down just in time to see Peter and Vicky disappear into the past (650).
[edit] The second execution of Victoria Winters
Barnabas and Julia found the grave of Victoria Winters next to Peter Bradford's grave, prompting Barnabas to travel back in time to try and stop her execution. Barnabas was able to change several events, one of which was to stop Victoria from being hanged. He sent Peter and Victoria away from Collinsport to live out their lives.
[edit] Confusion of date of death
Victoria Winters was hanged before Peter Bradford, yet her date of death is generally given as Mar. 29, 1796 (460). Presumably his date of death was entered incorrectly on his tombstone as 1795, but this year also appears on the note he wrote to Danielle Rogét.
